Page:Robert Carter- his life and work. 1807-1889 (IA robertcarterhis00coch).pdf/62

46 found that he had lost considerably on his bargain, but it always pleased him to remember that the Bible was the first book he ever sold. His first year of business yielded him a much larger return than his school had done, and each succeeding year proved more favorable than the last.

His sturdy independence and frugal habits were important factors in his success. One day when his assistant was very busy in the store, Mr. Carter, as he was going home to dinner, picked up a large package of books, intending to deliver them to a customer on his way. As he was passing through the streets, he met a young bookseller who had started in business about the same time as himself, and the young man remarked sneeringly, “Ah! I see you are your own porter.” “Yes,” said Mr. Carter, “I am not ashamed to do any necessary work.”

Mr. Carter soon removed into a somewhat larger store, at the corner of Canal and Mercer Streets, and there began to publish books. The following account of these early business days was found among his papers:—

“In 1836 Mr. James Lenox sent for me and gave me a book which he valued very much and advised me to publish. I did so, and he took one hundred copies, and distributed them mainly among the students of Princeton Seminary. This book was Symington on the Atonement. I took a copy of it to some of the leading booksellers in New York, and they told me I had mistaken my calling,—that this was too dry a book for Americans, though it might have suited the Covenanters of Scotland two hundred years ago, Notwithstanding this, the first edition went off, and fifteen hundred more were printed and sold. It was then